Integration Two
Moreau First Year Experience
Pedro Augusto Bolsonaro

Finding Peace in a Chaotic World: How do I Respond to Challenges in my Community?

As I conclude my first semester at Notre Dame, time is ripe to look back and reflect on personal growth and engagement within my community. At a personal level, being inserted into a new environment challenged me to respond to external and internal dissonance as I had to escape my comfort zone and adapt to a completely new setting. In the context of our school’s community, I considered what challenges we collectively face, and, particularly from a Latino perspective, how to improve diversity and inclusion for international students. Finally, we were able to look within ourselves, and understand what gives us hope, ultimately leveraging it to make us grow personally, academically, professionally, and spiritually. 

In Week Nine of the course, students were presented with the opportunity to reflect on how they responded to the major challenges of entering college. These included not only external ones, such as forging new friendships, building rapport with faculty, and networking with potential employers; but also internal ones, such as dealing with academic pressure, confidence, and self-esteem, and living away from family. Emily Bergmann, in her article on her transition to college, talked about her difficulties in making new friendships, “the worst part was that I felt as if I were the only one who was this lonely. I’d see all these freshmen walk in packs - just massive groups of friends already formed in the first two weeks of school. (“Advice From a Formerly Lonely College Student” by Emery Bergmann - Moreau FYE Week Nine)” I shared many of the concerns that Emily mentioned in her article, but this one particularly resonated with me. I remember walking around campus in the first few days of classes - it seemed as if everyone had effortlessly made hundreds of friends, whereas I was stuck with just a few. As time went by, however, I started to realize that everyone was in the exact same situation as I was, anxious and scrambling to meet new people. It just was the sheer number of people talking and getting to know each other that gave the impression that everyone had made countless friends. This realization made me understand that making friendships is not as “black and white” as I originally thought. I had this perception that you either “clicked” or not with a person and that ultimately decided whether you would become friends. A lesson that I learned is that what makes a person your friend are the experiences you enjoy together, the conversations you have, and an element of trust. All these factors are bound by the immutable concept of time, which made me realize that not having formed deep friendships in the first weeks is absolutely normal. Interestingly, my best friend here at Notre Dame studied in high school with me, but we rarely talked to each other before coming here. This further proves that it was the experience of getting to know him through experiences, conversations, and most importantly time, that made us become friends. As I continue to make friendships with students I encounter throughout my four-year tenure here at Notre Dame, I will take these lessons to heart, and focus on building connections not by forcing them, but by naturally letting them occur.

As Week Ten came along, students were encouraged to consider challenges faced by our community and come up with suitable solutions. When referring to my community both at a campus-wide scale as well as at a broader, national level, the challenge I singled out as the most alarming was political polarization. The arrival of social media and the ascension of controversial political topics such as abortion, climate change, and drug legalization, caused a deep division in the political spheres of both Brazil and the United States, countries I consider to be, in one way or another, part of. Previously to my arrival at Notre Dame, I paid distant attention to matters surrounding domestic politics; not only did I find them pointless (as it usually circled back to “my opinion is better than yours regardless of what you say”), I also found that there was little I could do that would help solving such issues. In my mind, such disputes were so tribal and close-minded that I had lost faith in the political system. As Fr. Jenkins warned in his 2012 Commencement Address, people are “following the script for creating factions: Develop strong convictions. Group up with like-minded people. Shun the others. Play the victim. Blame the enemy. Stoke grievance. Never compromise. (“Wesley Theological Seminary 2012 Commencement Address” by Fr. John Jenkins - Moreau FYE Week Ten)” However, as I learned about the impact that Notre Dame alumni have had on the world, and the clubs that promote different sides here on campus, the more I realize how important it is to become deeply engrossed in such conversations, and truly believe that change can emanate from cooperation and collaboration. For example, I attended a virtual panel hosted by the Keough School of Global Affairs which talked about the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 and the United States pulling out from Afghanistan after years of war. The event hosted stellar faculty specialized in the topic who were actively working with the United States government, and it make me realize, for the first time, that these are the same faculty that I am learning from. This revelation was so profound and mind-boggling that it made appreciate Notre Dame’s capacity to empower us students to conduct positive change in the world.

	In Week Eleven, students were asked to contemplate on the subject of interconnectedness and consider how connection and community are threatened amidst pervasive conflict and dissimilarity. The content particularly highlighted the strength in diversity and how connection is powered by trust. My experiences as a Latino student at Notre Dame have been invaluable, particularly as I am witnessing firsthand, for the first time in my life, what it feels like to be part of a minority within a community. I believe Notre Dame does a great job in promoting an inclusive environment for students from all over the world. This is clearly reflected on the student body’s willingness to embrace this diversity and welcome students from all over the globe. In fact, before coming to Notre Dame, one of my biggest concerns was exactly the uncertainty of being accepted, as a foreigner, into a predominantly American student body. This worry was particularly augmented by the stories I heard from students from other colleges, who were discriminated and left out due to their background. A prominent case of this is my older cousin, Matheus, who is now a senior at Virginia Tech. He said that the difference in culture and upbringing was so acute that he had great difficulty in making friends. At Notre Dame, however, (and I proudly say this to everyone) I was blown away by the cordiality and welcoming spirit of students, faculty, and staff. It further reinforces my belief that I made the right call in coming to South Bend over any place else.
To preserve this welcoming atmosphere in our campus, our community must promptly and proactively continue to promote a culture of inclusiveness. To do this, we must not look at others, but at ourselves, and see what we can do to improve our community. Only then, we can see that what makes our community strong is in fact our diversity. That is exactly what makes our campus so rich, potent, and interdependent on what another. As Parker J. Palmer puts it, “by contemplation I mean any way one has penetrated the illusion of separateness and touching the reality of interdependence. (“Thirteen Ways of Looking at Community” by Parker J. Palmer, Center of Courage and Renewal – Moreau FYE Week Eleven)”. This realization galvanized me to contribute to the Latino community here on campus by joining clubs such as the Brazilian Student Association and ALPHA, the former conceived to foster Brazilian culture at Notre Dame and the latter turned to promote the professional and academic interests of Finance majoring Latinos on campus. In these groups I have built rapport with other Latinos and participated in events such as webinars and networking initiatives that have helped me connect with potential employers for internships and post-graduation employment. 

	In Week 12, we were asked to reflect on how to live and grow in hope. In contrast to other weeks, where the emphasis was placed on our community, the focus of this week was to look inside ourselves and find the people and things that give us hope. In the context of Notre Dame’s Catholic education, which fuses a critical appreciation of religion with state-of-the-art pedagogy, we are not only incentivized to consider what we learn but also how we learn and why we learn. In the words of Fr. James B. King, “In striving for academic excellence, a Holy Cross education seeks to develop student’s intellectual capacities within the context of a broad curriculum. (“Hope - Holy Cross and Catholic Education” by Fr. James B. King, CSC - Moreau FYE Week Twelve)” During the collegiate application process, I questioned whether the spiritual side of education was a factor worth considering when selecting colleges. When I got accepted to Notre Dame, however, I quickly realized how crucially important this was to my college experience. Differently from other colleges, Notre Dame places a lot of emphasis on discovering who one is within not only the physical world, but also one’s relationship to God. At Notre Dame, for example, I attend mass every Sunday, something that I rarely did back in Brazil. The ability to attend mass with your friends and cultivate a feeling of community makes it an incredible experience and definitely gravitates me towards a closer relationship to God.
Ultimately, Notre Dame teaches us how to leverage hope, not only in ourselves but also in our brothers and sisters around us, to strive for a better future. I will continue to look within my soul and discern my personal ambitions, use those to identify my ultimate goals in life, and employ the hope that emanates from those to avail myself to the maximum of the possibilities that the school offers to contribute to that end. You may ask in what way will I know if I am heading down the right path. I will respond that it is impossible to know. The only certainty I have is that as long as my heart and mind are at ease in regard to doing my best in fostering community, building a sustainable and prosperous future for myself and my family, and maintaining close proximity to God, I know that He will open the doors and guide me to the correct paths. 



Works Cited

Bergmann, E. (2018). Advice from a Formerly Lonely College Student. NY Times.

Jenkins, F. J. (2012). Wesley Theological Seminary Commencement. University of Notre Dame.

King, F. J. (2013). Hope - Holy Cross and Christian Education. Campus Ministry at the University of Notre Dame.

Palmer, P. J. (1998). Thirteen Ways of Looking at Community . Center for Courage & Renewal.